President of the PNG OLYMPIC COMMITTEE, Sir John DAWANICURA has expressed his disappointment and sadness towards the decision to axe the Men’s Softball Tournament from the Pacific Games 2015 and explained that such decision had to be made due to a chain of events.The Pacific Games Organizing Committee, in conjunction with the Pacific Games Council, regretfully advise that the Men’s Softball Tournament for the 2015 Pacific Games had to be cancelled due to the lack of entries.Following the closure of entries at 12 midnight on the 20th May, PNG was the only team to enter.“When numerical entries are made, so long as we have 6 countries then that’s fine, but when it is reduced after that to the final entries, and numbers are reduced to 2, our hands are tied and such decision need to be made, “ said Sir Dawanicura.Furthermore, he added that participating countries have the challenge of raising funds for athletes allowed under the Pacific Games Charter and that determines how much they have to raise.He added that if the various Pacific Games Associations are unable to meet the targeted funding, then it falls back on the individual National Federations of the respective countries to fund their respective teams.“ If the Federations aren’t able to assist, then we have to levy the athletes,” he added.The PNG Government had invested K1.4B towards facilities and assisting Team Code preparations.“ As part of our bid in 2009 to host the Games, we did offer to pay the first 50 athletes per diem at 50 US dollars per person, and this offer was made to encourage Pacific Island nations to send all sporting codes athletes in the 28 sporting events,” said Sir Dawanicura. “ My heart goes out to the Softball athletes who had to train so hard and not to mention the financial support from Government to the Olympic Committee over the last few years.”Sir Dawanicura added that it is disappointing for us not to compete and win those medals that we factored into our anticipated GOLD MEDALS but there is nothing much we can do at this stage.The Women’s Tournament is still planned to run at the Bisini Grounds and the GOC is currently revising the schedule now to reflect the cancellation of the Men’s competition and any impact to the Women’s schedule.